1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to conveying methods, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for conveying green tires from tire building machines to tire curing machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional tire-manufacturing process, in case various cylindrical green tires shaped by various tire building machines are attached to curing machines, the green tires are conveyed by a vehicle or hook conveyor, before the curing machine green tires suitable for this curing machine are withdrawn from the conveying means by man power, and a prescribed number of green tires are stored prior to insertion within the curing machine. The curing machines are divided into two types, namely, one type provided with a so-called vertical loader for loading green tires, and the other type that is not provided with a vertical loader. In the former type, the green tires stored prior to insertion within the curing machine are delivered into a receiving plate of the vertical loader by man power, and in the latter type, the green tires are directly delivered to the curing machine by manpower.
As a system for performing the above operation automatically, a green tire shaping and curing line as shown in FIG. 1 has been proposed. According to this proposal, on one side of a green tire conveying line d, including a hook conveyor having a shape of long, connected rectangles, there is disposed, in series, a suitable number of various tire building machines a together with corresponding storing devices b and loading devices c for loading green tires onto the hook conveyor line d. On the other side of the green tire conveying line d, there is disposed, in series, various curing machines e for curing the green tires. One green tire charging device f is disposed for each curing machine e.
In the above processing line, it is necessary to provide one loading device c for each storing device b and one charging device f for each curing device e. Accordingly, the entire system becomes complex. The green tire g is suspended horizontally by a hook mounted on the conveying line d as shown in FIG. 2, and the green tire g is conveyed in this horizontally suspended state. Therefore, this conveying system is defective in that in the charging device f for charging green tires into the curing machine e, there must be provided a mechanism for turning the green tire by 90.degree..
Furthermore, since even empty hook conveyors must also be operated, the power expenses become large, and since the entire hook conveyors are suspended on an endless conveyor line, if the desired hook passes the corresponding curing machine, it must make one whole one round trip, for which a considerable time for awaiting the hook is required.